HTC Corporation (Chinese: 宏達國際電子股份有限公司; pinyin: Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), or High Tech Computer Corporation (abbreviated and trading as HTC), is a Taiwanese consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Taoyuan District, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Founded in 1997, HTC began as an original design manufacturer and original equipment manufacturer that designed and manufactured laptop computers. After initially making smartphones based mostly on Windows Mobile, HTC became one of 34 cofounding members of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of handset manufacturers and mobile network operators dedicated to the development of the Android operating system. The HTC Dream (marketed by T-Mobile in many countries as the T-Mobile G1) was the first phone on the market to run Android. Although initially successful as a smartphone vendor as it became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. in Q3 2011, competition from Samsung and Apple, among others, diluted its market share, which dropped to just 7.2% by April 2015, and the company has experienced consecutive net losses. In 2016, HTC began to diversify its business beyond smartphones and has partnered with Valve to produce a virtual reality platform known as HTC Vive. After having collaborated with Google on its Google Pixel, HTC sold roughly half of its design and research talent, as well as non-exclusive rights to smartphone-related intellectual property, to Google in 2017 for US$1.1 billion.
History
Foundation Cher Wang (王雪紅) and H. T. Cho (卓火土) founded HTC in 1997. Initially a manufacturer of notebook computers, HTC began designing some of the world's first touch and wireless hand-held devices in 1998. In early 2000s, HTC was one of the OEM manufacturer which produces Windows Mobile PDA devices such as iPAQ and Axim. HTC started making Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones starting from 2004 under the Qtek brand. In 2006 the range was rebranded as HTC with the launch of the HTC TyTN. In 2002, HTC and China Electronics Corporation created the mobile device company Dopod International, and headquartered in Shanghai, which responsible the PDA and smartphone sales in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau market. In 2007, HTC acquired the mobile device company Dopod International. In 2010, the Dopod brand was ceased. In 2008, HTC unveiled the HTC Max 4G, the first GSM mobile phone to support WiMAX networks.
Android HTC joined Google's Open Handset Alliance and then developed and released the first device powered by Android in 2008, the HTC Dream. On 15 October 2009, HTC launched the brand tagline "quietly brilliant"', and the "YOU" campaign, HTC's first global advertising campaign. In November 2009, HTC released the HTC HD2, the first Windows Mobile device with a Touchscreen. The same year, HTC Sense debuted as a user interface which continues to be used as of 2018. In July 2010, HTC announced it would begin selling HTC-branded smartphones in China in a partnership with China Mobile. In October 2010, the HTC HD7 was released as one of the launch models of Microsoft's revitalised Windows Phone. In 2010, HTC sold over 24.6 million handsets, up 111% over 2009. At the Mobile World Congress in February 2011, the GSMA named HTC the "Device Manufacturer of the Year" in its Global Mobile Awards. In April 2011, HTC surpassed Nokia as the third-largest smartphone manufacturer by market share, behind Apple and Samsung. On 6 July 2011, it was announced that HTC would buy VIA Technologies' stake in S3 Graphics. On 6 August 2011, HTC acquired Dashwire for $18.5M. In August 2011, HTC confirmed a plan for a strategic partnership with Beats Electronics involving acquiring 51 percent of the company. The 2011 Best Global Brands rankings released by Interbrand, listed HTC at #98 and valued it at $3.6 billion. Based on researcher Canalys, in Q3 2011 HTC Corporation became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. with 24 percent market share, ahead of Samsung's 21 percent, Apple's 20 percent and BlackBerry's 9 percent. HTC Corporation made different models for each operator. During early 2012, HTC lost much of this U.S. market share due to increased competition from Apple and Samsung. According to analyst firm ComScore, HTC only accounted for 9.3% of the United States smartphone market as of February 2013. In light of the company's decrease in prominence, Chief Executive Peter Chou had informed executives that he would step down if the company's newest flagship phone, the 2013 HTC One (M7), had failed to generate impressive sales results. HTC's first quarter results for 2013 showed its year-over-year profit drop by 98.1%, making it the smallest-ever profit for the company—the delay of the launch of the HTC One was cited as one of the factors. In June 2012, HTC moved its headquarters from Taoyuan City (now Taoyuan District) to Xindian District, New Taipei City. On 14 January 2013, HTC launched its smartphones in Burma.
Windows Phone HTC is one of the earliest OEMs to produce Windows Phone devices. In June 2012, Microsoft released Windows Phone 8 (which changed the kernel to NT kernel) but without pre-notify OEMs (like Nokia and HTC), this further exhausted the R&D costs of HTC, as HTC must to do many re-adapt work for the new Windows Phone 8 in a short time. In 2012, it was rumored that "Microsoft wants to acquire HTC", but later Steve Ballmer replied that "Microsoft will not acquire HTC" in March 2013.
HTC Zoe/Video Highlights HTC Zoe (also known as Video Highlights) is a video editing/slideshow app that allows users to create videos of pictures/videos with a slideshow with different themes. The app was launched in 2012 and shut down in 2020.
Litigation
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